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ELI5 why Google Maps is bad at figuring out the direction the phone is pointing?
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For years now, Google Maps has been and is still failing to point the position arrow in the right direction on pedestrian navigation. This is despite the fact that it detects in which direction I move and despite phone GPS being accurate enough to use in compass apps. So what is Google messing up here?
| 199 |
Because it's not Google doing that, it's your phone's compass. And you can easily guess how bundling an accurate compass inside the mess of wires and electromagnetic interference that is your phone isn't exactly the easiest thing.
All Google does is represent the magnetic bearing your phone says it's pointing at as a small arrow.
Still, your phone should give an accurate reading. Just make sure you lay it flat on your hand. That and do figure-8 motions to help the sensor calibrate itself.
| 273 |
Were there isolated islands on the opposite side of Earth from Pangaea?
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We have places like Hawaii and other really isolated islands in the Pacific today.
Looking at pictures and illustrations, it seems like the continents are expanding into the Pacific. Since the modern Pacific has islands in (roughly) the middle of it, did the ancient mega-Pacific also have these islands?
We would be talking about islands that are much further from land than is possible today. Maybe they're even the same island as modern ones?
| 53 |
There were definately no modern islands.
Hawaii is the classic example of intraplate-volcanism, that is, volcanism far from where plates are subduction (trenches) or being created (mid-ocean ridges). The Earth's mantle convects like a boiling pot of spaghetti, with hot plumes of solid rock rising, and cold downwellings sinking back down. Above the hot plumes, melting is increased in the shallow mantle, and volcanoes are made. As the pacific plate moved westward over the Hawaiian Hotspot, it left behind a chain of islands.
Hotspot processes are not new, and there were almost certainly hotspot chains in the oceans of ancient super-continents.
Secondly, not all subduction zones on the planet were near Pangaea at the time. Where there is subduction, the wet, rigid oceanic crust is pulled into the very-dry mantle. When the water leaves the crust and enters the mantle it causes melting, and you get what fore-arc volcanoes. As the plate is forced down, it buckles up, relieving pressure and allowing melting to form back-arc volcanoes.
It is possible these volcanic islands existed as well.
| 27 |
ELI5: What are the strengths and weaknesses of macs vs PCs? (Objectively, please)
| 23 |
Macs are custom designed to work with a smaller set of hardware and software. So more attention is given to details that are hard to enforce in an open, generic platform. However, inevitably, Apple is stuck with a smaller number of vendors who can therefore exert price pressure and ultimately cause the machine cost to be highly marked up.
Windows main selling point is the high degree of backwards compatibility and openness. There is a high onus on independent developers to provide all the quality of their solution by themselves. Since Microsoft does not have any real method of enforcement of any quality standards (other than minor incentives such as the "Windows logo" program) you get solutions with quite varied quality. On the other hand the more open market place tends to create fair and correct pricing for third party hardware and software.
So there is a common conception that Mac's tend to crash less and "just work" more and that Windows tends to be flakey, insecure and more difficult to use. Windows machines tend to be much cheaper than Macs.
| 21 |
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[Terminator] Why did Skynet believe that killing John Connor would affect the outcome of the war?
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Let’s say Skynet’s plan to assassinate John Connor/Sarah Connor was a complete success, the T-800 goes and easily kills Kyle Reese and then strangles Sarah. Why...why would Skynet believe this will significantly change the outcome of the war? Why would Skynet be convinced a single man was all that stood between itself and human extinction? What about John’s army? What about the human resistance it was undoubtedly fighting all around the world (assuming Skynet’s plan was to destroy humanity and not just US citizens) who certainly were not directly led by John if he was leading them at all? What about the remnants of the US and Soviet and even UK and French militaries, all of whom could carry on the fight in whatever way they could? Would killing John eliminate the Resistance? Would it suddenly make all the potential fighters disappear? Would it make the resources and infrastructure left behind from Judgment Day, as well as the automated Skynet factories the resistance took over simply cease to exist? Honestly why is Skynet so foolish and singleminded, I’m pretty sure a historian can tell you that just killing Hitler as an infant likely wouldn’t prevent WWII or an equivalent conflict, if that’s the case then why would Skynet ever be dumb enough to think that eliminating one man would save itself? Did it not consider that, perhaps...someone else would lead humanity instead? Especially considering the fact that Terminator Dark Fate (tho admittedly I only accept the first two films as canon) shows explicitly that John Connor was not necessary, there would always be someone who stood up to Skynet, it was just a matter of who would turn out to be the most capable leader for the resistance, for which clearly many candidates existed.
| 678 |
Skynet's time travel plot was a last-ditch, desperate attempt to save itself. By the time it sent the first T-800 to the past, human forces were already in the process of dismantling Skynet's infrastructure, and were ready to destroy the time machine before they realized what happened. In a way, there was very little logic to it, Skynet just took a very human gamble out of fear.
Every time loop is similar. Skynet only sends agents to the past because it's on the verge of losing, and it wants to preserve itself by any means necessary. The small alterations to the plan are still nothing more than the desperate last gasps of a dying machine.
| 624 |
(Star Wars/EU) Why do the Jedi we see in the movies seem so unimpressive?
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I know the EU has since been declared Non-Canon, but I was fairly sure it was, originally, intended to be canon with the movies.
In the novels, video games, etc. we see that Jedi can react in microseconds, disintegrate people with their powers, and move black holes.
In the movies, Jedi and Sith seem to have some telekinetic ability (Luke Skywalker struggled lifting his lightsaber, and he was supposed to be a force protege). Even when they fight each other, it looks like 2 humans fighting, and characters standing next to them can see what's going on (like in the fight between Obi-Wan and Vader).
Why do they seem so much weaker in the movies? were they indeed always intended as separate canons?
| 65 |
Think about who you're seeing in these films.
Luke is very new to the force, he's a prodigy with it but still lacks experience, he's learning skills most Jedi take years to master as children. Obi Wan is a broken old man in Ep 4. Vader is severely limited in both his mobility and force ability by his damaged body. Lastly, Palpatine had given so much of his essence to his less visible abilities like seeing the future and battle meditation that his body was barely holding together, and when he hits Luke with the lightning he's not really trying to kill him, just cause enough pain to release his anger.
Now in the prequels we see a fully manned Jedi order. Except what is the council discussing, yes their lessened ability to use the force. So not only are the Jedi weakened in the force, they have grown fat and lazy from a thousand years of relative peace (they participated in a few planetary conflicts here and there, but no Sith contact in a millennium). The Sith we see are Maul, an assassin who quickly overpowers a master and is defeated by his own hubris, Tyranus, a newly minted Sith who is narrowly defeated by Yoda then killed by none other than Skywalker himself, and Sidious who spends most of the trilogy keeping a low profile. When he finally comes out to fight what happens? Yeah, kills 3 masters is as many seconds, then plays at letting Mace win to turn Anakin, then really finishes him. Finally, he smacks Yoda around like a surly child while simultaneously directing his troops via battle meditation.
TL/DR: Lazy, stagnant Jedi order, lots of people struggling to learn new skills, and Palpatine keeping a low profile.
Edit: spelling
| 78 |
ELI5: Why have so many people gotten cancer from dust/chemicals inhaled or absorbed due to the 911 attacks?
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I hadn’t really thought about it before but I realized I never actually understood why this happens. How does exposure to certain carcinogenic substances for a few hours manifest itself into cancer years or even decades down the road? I understand how living next to chemical plant or smoking cigarettes can cause cancer from long term exposure but I don’t really get how it can happen so quickly. I was also curious as to if they have a rough idea of what the carcinogens were coming from (I.e burning paint, plastics, etc.).
| 25 |
Whenever you do cell damage, cells repair and grow. And every time that happens, there is a chance of cancer mutations. These people breathed in lots of microscopic glass and asbestos that continually causes damage that results in repair and mutation. On top of that, some of the nasty things breathed in were also chemical carcinogens that cause cancer.
| 39 |
ELI5: Is a fruit or vegetable 'Ripe' when humans deem it fit for consumption, or is it a biological state for the plant?
| 22 |
We eat most fruits when they're biologically ripe. We eat most vegetables early. Broccoli and cauliflower we eat the unopened buds of their flowers; cabbages, lettuces and mustards we eat the leaves before the plant buds. We eat peas young, but most beans we let mature.
| 20 |
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[WH40K] I've always wondered, how do Tau and their human citizens deal with the difference in lifespan?
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Are humans given jail sentences for crimes based on the Tau standard? Do Tau doctors know enough about human anatomy to treat their subjects or do the humans handle medical care on their own? Are humans ever allowed positions as record keepers, rather than the usual fire-warrior auxiliary, because of their long lived lives?
| 27 |
Humans don't live all that much longer. Without body mods an imperial citizen lives about as long as us if they don't end up doing hard menial labor or drafted. That's considerably longer than Tau live from a personal perspective but in the grand scale of things its a minimal difference.
| 13 |
[BattleTech] How do ships maneuver in space?
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I've been looking at drawings of BattleTech WarShips and Aerospace Fighters and I notice they don't appear to have any visible attitude thrusters. I find this surprising because BattleTech is apparently supposed to be relatively hard sci-fi, and supposedly averts the "Space Friction" trope.
Can someone explain to me what's going on here? How do WarShips and Aerospace Fighters maneuver in space? Is it via attitude thrusters that I can't see, or is there some other method?
| 18 |
IIRC most have smaller recessed attitude thrusters for adjustments and course correction needs. Aerofighters sometimes don't have any and rely heavily on their main fusion thrusters to get around with wings and tail flaps for adjustments but this limits their effectiveness in space. A lot of the bigger jumpships and dropships keep their thrusters behind armor plated panels to prevent damage from stellar debris and enemy weapons that could cripple their ability to move.
| 12 |
[Inside Out] What happens inside someone’s headquarters if they are suffering from PTSD?
| 440 |
Essentially, whenever a trigger happens, the memory of the original trauma would show up on the main screen and everyone would act like they were in that scenario.
Some emotions may try to calm everyone by telling them that the screen is just a memory, not actually what's happening, but anger or fear (or both) would seize control of the panel and react to the memory as if it were really happening
| 530 |
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I believe that teachers, in general, complain too much about their profession, CMV.
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I believe teachers provide a valuable service to the world, and the education of our youth is extremely important. I find that my view is shared by the VAST majority of people.
However, teachers seem to *always* be complaining about how they don't get paid enough, that their work is instrumental in the foundation of society and no one takes them seriously, that parents are constantly looking down on teachers, that students are disrespectful towards them, that teachers aren't valued enough, that people think that teachers don't care about students, etc.
I work in education and haven't experienced or witnessed any of this. I also have a high-stress job, but if people in my profession were to complain publicly the way teachers do, we would be vilified. I feel this is true of most professions. If nurses or janitors complained as much as teachers, people would tell them they should have chosen a different profession. I think that teachers should learn to cope with the reality of their profession, rather than complaining all the time.
| 63 |
There's a very simple and compelling reason why teachers should complain about their jobs more publicly than anyone else.
The reason is that teachers, unlike nurses or janitors or you, are public employees, ultimately dependent on winning votes to change their conditions. You might say that this is true about janitors in public schools, but it's not true: the conditions of janitors are determined by market forces of which public schools are only a very minor part. The market for teachers, on the other hand, is determined by public policy (primarily not federal or state, but local government policies distributed across the country).
Because it's ultimately the public of voters who are employing public teachers, they *must* make their case to the public.
| 57 |
ELI5: How does tuna fish last in a can? I understand they put it in water, but sometimes I see tuna fish that won’t expire for two years. That seems like a long time for fish to not go bad.
| 61 |
For food to go bad it needs something to spoil it (bacteria, mold, yeast) and often oxygen.
Canned tuna is heated after closing to kill the bad things. It usually doesn't have much oxygen either (though some bacteria don't need oxygen)
| 91 |
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ELI5: How does wage theft happen?
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I keep seeing posts about how it is much larger than "normal" theft but how do companies get away with it? Are they paying the wrong rate or undercounting hours? Do workers not check how much they are paid? How do you avoid it happening to you?
| 18 |
A lot of it is done under the guise of solidarity and helping your workmates. "it'd be really great for the team if you could just go help them do this even though you're off the clock"
It's the ways in which an employer will convince you to work without being paid, and it usually comes with a guilt trip that makes you feel as though you should do it to help.
Employers also use the reverse tactic of making you feel guilty for time theft, where you do non-work related things on the clock. If they can convince you that you're guilty of something like spending a few minutes talking to a work friend, that's time theft. But if you spent the same few minutes taking to a client about the same exact thing, that's not because there is potential profit involved for the company.
| 41 |
[Skyrim] How is Astrid able to transport my over-encumbered, heavy armor wearing badass Dragonborn from the heavily guarded Fort Dawnguard to an abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere in such a short period of time?
| 56 |
Astrid leads a band of assassins trained in various forms of infiltration. They have their mission, move the Dragonborn to the abandoned shack. Easy.
Firstly, they scope out where he's going to be at his weakest. He favors Fort Dawnguard for rest and recovery. Astrid orders Babette to create a haven of vampires out in the Reach. She then uses her network of couriers to relay to the Dawnguard that this haven is planning on attacking Markarth in force. The majority of the Dawnguard forces leave to attack the haven. The Dawnguard leave Agmaer in charge of holding the fort (a job he'll fail, his inexperience leaves him vulnerable to being incapacitated)
The first thing Astrid does is place a paralysis spell on the Dragonborn while he is asleep. She gets a recruit to prepare a carriage. Having access to advanced alchemies, she prepares a few potions of Fortify Carry Weight, feeding one to the dragonborn. The more brawny Dark Brotherhood members carry his body out to the carriage.
The Carriage is drawn by none other than Shadowmere, who normally wouldn't be caught dead in this position but understands the importance of this job. Along the way, Astrid maintains the spell and potions effects, before finally arriving at the abandoned shack, where she then puts the Dragonborn to her test.
*Or, you could suspend your disbelief and accept that you didn't join at the intended time of the developers*
| 69 |
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Why do I get the conservation of energy when I solve the Euler-Lagrange equation?
| 93 |
If a Lagrangian has no explicit time dependence, then the system exhibits conservation of energy. The energy turns out to be the Hamiltonian H associated to the Lagrangian L (i.e., H is the Legendre transform of L with respect to the velocity variables).
| 16 |
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ELI5: What makes inflation so bad?
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Sure everything costs more, but you also make more, so whats wrong?
| 22 |
It benefits people with debt (their debt is worth less) but screws over people with savings (because their savings don't necessarily rise with inflation). Also, wages are sticky- it takes a while for them to catch up to price changes.
| 11 |
Why is it difficult to see yellow on a white background?
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Assuming normal human vision, what is it about the human eye or the color yellow or both that makes yellow inherently more difficult to distinguish on a white background than other colors?
| 27 |
Perception of yellow and white relies on overlapping mechanisms in the retina.
Simplifying a bit: yellow is sensed by "opponent" neurons that are excited by medium (M) and long (L) wavelength cone receptors, *and* are inhibited by short (S) wavelength cones. So, when the stimulus has a lot of long/medium wavelength content but little short wavelength content, those neurons respond and you see "Yellow".
The "white" (or really, "brightness") signal comes from neurons that simply pool the L and M cone inputs (but not the S! - or maybe a little bit of S, sometimes). Call these L+M cells.
So, if you have a long/middle wavelength light mixture, it will look yellow *and* bright, since you're exciting both the opponent cells and the L+M cells. But then you can mix S wavelength light into it, and it won't get brighter but it will look white (since those opponent cells are now being inhibited).
Since both colors have such common neural architecture, they are perceptually very similar.
Meanwhile, blue and yellow look extremely different, because they excite almost completely complementary neurons, starting in the retina.
| 35 |
[The Good Place] How did she get back? (SPOILERS Season 4)
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After being rescued, Good Janet destroyed the portal between the Bad Place and the Nuetral/Test neighborhood. So how was Bad Janet supposed to get back to the Bad Place when she was released if the only way is by train?
| 18 |
The train is not *quite* the only way(due to the nature of Janets, and the fact of the Experiment), and that particular tunnel is not the only train tunnel, it was just the one that would have provided the best way for the Demons to pursue them. Janet straight up says that it will "slow them down", not stop them entirely.
And besides, between their escape and the release of Bad Janet, **six months** of in-neighborhood time passed.
| 21 |
ELI5: Why does microwaving continuously for sixty seconds heat food so much more effectively than two consecutive thirty-second cycles?
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I noticed that my tea tends to be much hotter when I microwave it continuously than when I take it out half-way through. This result seems to be consistent regardless of material. Even if I open the microwave just for a quick second, whatever I’m microwaving needs significantly more time to heat. Why is this?
| 6,329 |
The magnetron inside your microwave that generates the microwaves is a vacuum tube, and the cathode inside it has to warm up before it starts emitting electrons. (literally warm up, as in temperature)
You will usually be able to hear a difference in the noise it makes a few seconds after you start it, this is when it's really starting to work.
| 2,297 |
[Marvel] Does Spiderman have any Martial Arts Training or is it all just Spidersense?
| 50 |
Through experience and trial and error he has essentially developed his own bespoke form of martial arts that exploits his enhanced agility and spider sense.
When he lost his Spider sense he enlisted the help of Shang Chi to develop a new style that still made use of his enhanced abilities (sans Spidey Sense) but was more formalized as an actual martial war (Way of the Spider, or Spider-Fu).
He also has some prior generic combat training from Captain America (but who doesn't.)
| 102 |
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[Y the Last Man] What happened to the sperm banks?
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Did the Daughters of the Amazon manage to torch EVERY fertility clinic on the planet?
| 60 |
Sperm is frozen in liquid nitrogen, which takes a lot of energy to store and maintain. When the plague hit, the resulting loss of personnel throughout the energy infrastructure grid caused massive blackouts and disruptions. That would have been enough to destroy the viability of any stored sperm.
| 51 |
[Minecraft] What religion exists in Minecraft?
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The villagers have churches, but nothing specific. Are they aware of the Enderdragon & The Endermen? Are they demons to them? What about the wither?
| 126 |
Intriguing clue, the clerics have creeper faces on their robes. Creepers are also not hostile to villagers. Intentional anti-frustration game design? Yeah, but also it's possible they see the creepers as some sort of guardian species. Maybe at some point one got damaged and blew up some zombies for a village and word spread.
| 114 |
I believe that schools giving suspensions to students has the opposite effect on behavior. CMV
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Growing up I went through a typical "American Public School System" and graduated High School last year. Having experienced suspensions thought my 12 years in the system, I feel that giving these to students is having the opposite intended effect on their behavior.
* To give you an example...
When I was a Freshman in High School, two girls was caught fighting each other in the bathroom. They both received a 2 week (out of school) suspension for this. After the two weeks had ended they both came back to classes. THE FIRST PERIOD BACK they broke out in an even bigger and move violent fight (throwing things, flipping desks, etc) in math class. They again received 2 weeks suspensions each.
... And here is where I see a problem. I found out after the fact, that during the 2 weeks they each were suspend for the first fight, they trashed talked and made threats to each other over multiple social network sites. This being the case the first thing they both wanted to do on their return to classes was beat on each other again.
I see this as a perfect example of how these suspensions don't effectively deal with the student V Student conflict problems. Giving these students time away from school causes them to do poorly academically (thanks to missed class time). They don't use that time to cool off or think on their mistakes that caused them to get suspended in the first place. The time is used to make them more angry and then the problem starts all over again very often soon after they return to normal school.
CMV???
| 17 |
I don't think the goal is to correct the behavior when it comes to suspension. Who is getting suspended that actually views "Don't come to school for a week" as punishment?
The goal by that point is to remove them from the student population so that they can't be a distraction to the OTHER students, the ones who DO want to learn and don't deserve to have their first period punctuated by fistfights.
| 15 |
[Sid The Science Kid] Why does this school only have four kids and one teacher?
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It turns out babysitting my cousins gives me plenty of questions for this subreddit lol
| 18 |
Loved this show as a kid, can't believe it's still on lol
So to answer your question there's apparently two possible theories.
Either the kids are special needs and that explains why there's only four of them so the teacher can focus on them better individually
Or they all attend a super exclusive private school and the teacher doesn't need more students cause she's already making six figures from four kids
| 14 |
[MCU] Why Thanos thought that removing half of living creatures will make universe better? Was he aware that population will double in 100 years anyway and it will have no actual effect on greater scale other than pain of the survivors?
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if it was about sending a message, why didn't he just revive all creatures the next day
| 747 |
In *Infinity War*, you could make the argument that Thanos was mad, but well-intentioned. By reducing the number of *sapient* creatures by half, which is what we saw in the final moments of *IW*, resource use would be reduced, and those that remained could see the benefits of cutting the population. And, indeed, in the opening of *Endgame*, Steve Rogers mentions that whales are being seen in greater numbers than ever before.
The rest of *Endgame* throws all of that away, however. Thanos apparently destroyed half of *all* life, sapient, sentient, plants, bacteria, everything. This would have reduced consumables in addition to consumers, so the result would be ... we're right where we started, just with a bunch of dead people being vaccumed up.
So Thanos did what he did because he'd crazy, because he's cruel, and because he wanted to punish the universe for not recognizing his brilliance.
| 463 |
CMV: There should be a high sales tax on any product that adversely affects the public.
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Burning large quantities of gasoline pollutes the air. Consuming large quantities of soda, alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes increases public healthcare costs.
Products like theses should come with a large sales tax. This will either decrease consumption or increase government revenue to offset the public costs.
The added revenue can be used to either decrease other taxes or increase government spending; I don’t care which one, and I’m not here to argue the relative merits.
If your argument uses words or phrases like “elitist”, “paternalistic”, or “legislating morality”, please clarify what you mean. Is it “elitist”, “paternalistic”, or “legislating morality” to outlaw heroin, or enforce traffic laws? We already accept that the government can tell us never to do something, through the threat of possible jail time. Why can’t the government tell us to do something in moderation, through a small financial disincentive?
| 606 |
Are you ok with the fact that this will disproportionately effect the poor by significantly raising their tax burden? It seems to me that these kind of taxes tend to hurt precisely the people the government is generally trying to help lift out of poverty in the first place.
Edit: Typo
| 185 |
CMV: Patients should always be offered the ability to record themselves during procedures that use amnesia type drugs.
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Had to take my last one down because of the wording.
Before a patient is placed under a cocktail of drugs that effect their memory, there should be a *direct proactive* option for them to record it.
It is understood these can be recorded upon request but this places physicians and staff at a level they feel personally attacked. It upsets some of them to a point they will not provide any additional services for comfort and recovery beyond what they are allowed to withhold.
This is not an unusual request thrown into the mix that would be too tedious to add. This is an option that would benefit all patients in this scenario. They even proactively ask if sentimental jewelery is requested in the OR.
And I also realize major operations are heavily monitored. But even the minor operations should be recorded for the patient, for a fee. You are taking away someone's memories.
If someone reacts poorly to something because their comorbidities were overlooked or just ignored as irrelevant, this could easily be erased from their memories and not a word spoken of it. Any lapses of memory they do have from it, pushed aside as hallucinations.
Some people do have conditions that make the setting of general anesthesia to be pretty traumatizing and many have no recollection. And no one speaks a word of it to maintain a cleaner record. And it just keeps happening.
I believe most doctors are only doing what is best for the patient. But I also realize there are some that would rather drug the patient than admit fault. There are some that do not have the patients best interest at heart. This is important, this is your life vs someone's misplaced ego or direct carelessness for an alternative motive.
Although I believe police are far more capable of direct malice than doctors, they do have body cams and a good handful have been known to physically do anything to stop the recording of themselves because it feels like a personal attack on them. It's human nature to feel threatened by the request of being recorded when it's not a typical scenario. Some doctors understand and don't mind this at all but unfortunately some are still very offended by this and if the patient was instead offered, this scenario of bias wouldn't exist.
| 2,964 |
If you surgeries be recorded, people will want to watch them. If you show people their own near-death experience or even their body opened up to have a c-section, you may give people some serious PTSD.
There's a reason we don't want to remember being filleted like a fish.
| 760 |
ELI5: Why do the instructions on pasta call for you to measure out water?
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On pasta the bag/box will tell you to put 2 quarts, for example, of water in a pan. I always just put a generous amount of water in the pan to boil. Is there a reason I should be using 2 quarts and measure out the water when cooking pasta? Does anyone actually measure in this case?
| 35 |
The less water you use the sooner it will boil and the less energy you use maintaining the boil. However too little water and you end up steaming the pasta or even burn the pasta and that is not what you want. So the right amount of water is just so that the pasta starts to appear over the water just as it is done, which is pretty close to the recommended amount.
| 23 |
If an object with mass is moving near the speed of light towards me. Does the light reflected from that object "blue shift" into dangerous gamma rays?
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So it is my understanding that the light coming from objects moving toward an observer is "blue shifted" and the wavelengths compressed. If this is true can the light be so shifted that it is harmful to an observer?
For example, if say "the flash" was holding a flashlight and running toward me at relativistic speeds, does the light get compressed to gamma rays?
| 20 |
> If this is true can the light be so shifted that it is harmful to an observer?
Yes, it can be.
>For example, if say "the flash" was holding a flashlight and running toward me at relativistic speeds, does the light get compressed to gamma rays?
If he's running fast enough, yes.
| 36 |
CMV: Spikes in video games should only damage the player when the player is touching the pointy part
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Many video games have it so that the spikes will damage/kill the player regardless of which side they are being interacted with. This makes no sense to me on two levels. My first point is realism. While realism is not a pivotal design feature of many video games, it is still unrealistic to an annoying degree. If you were to set up a spiked object, such as a nail or pin in the real world, you would only feel pain from the pointy side, not the edge or back of them. The second is general player annoyance. Many games that involve spikes have platforming as an important focus, and sometimes platforming requires precision jumps over a spiked obsticle. To make said jump, I would get close to the spikes to make the success chance of the jump more likely. When you kill me for this practice, it does nothing other than punishing the player. There is a genuine difference between hard games and punishing ones, and killing the player when it doesn't seem like they deserve to die is one sure fire way to frustrate the player.
| 83 |
Are you also against the game physics to which one can leap off of pure air (aka double jumping?) because that is far more unrealistic.
Also you must remember that these spikes are made of pure metal. If you were to run full speed into a hard metal wall, you would get hurt. The same rule applies when you are falling from the sky and your knees get clobbered with the side of a massive spike. At the very least, it would dislodge your leg from impact.
| 14 |
ELI5: How does China artificially keep its currency cheap?
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I've tried reading around and googling but I cant seem to find a simple enough explanation for the not so financially savvy me. So, if anyone of you awesome people can help me out here. **How does China artifically keep its currency cheap? What do they have to do in order for this to happen? Any long term or short term consuquences?**
| 63 |
Instead of exchanging the USD they've earned into yuan (thus resulting in a surplus of USD in circulation in international currency market and short supply of yuan, in other words, devalued USD and higher value in yuan), they buy US treasury bonds, which is in USD denominations, it's not affected by the value of yuan. That way the supply of yuan circulating in the international currency market will never be low.
| 15 |
ELI5: Why can't psychologists prescribe medicine like psychiatrists, & how did the two professions come to exist as separate beings?
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I'm very aware one can prescribe medicine and the other essentially is only there to talk with you about your life but if I'm not mistaken, both are doctors correct? So why can only one prescribe medicine when they both seem to have intimate knowledge of the mind? What I mean is, how did the two ever get distinguished? Were they ever just one profession?
Also, which one came first? (In a professional sense. I assume that people have been talking about their problems for a long time)
| 45 |
Psychiatrists go through medical school and (normally) 4 years of residency after receiving their B.S. They are the typical "medical doctors." Clinical psychologists usually have a M.S. or a Ph.D. in psychology. If their title is "doctor," it is because of the doctorate degree (like how professors may address each other). Keep in mind that there are other jobs you can take as a psychologist, such as research and counseling, some even with just a B.S. Whereas the psychologist has probably studied basic biology as an undergraduate and understands the general workings of the human body (outside of psychology), the MD has had extensive training on every organ system, dysfunctions of these organ systems, and pharmaceuticals + their effects.
Simply put, psychologists know how the brain and behavior work and what psychiatric medications do, but psychiatrists know how the rest of the body works, what effects the medications have on the rest of the body, and what non-psychiatric drugs/substances are contraindicted with these drugs. They are also required to have many more years of clinical experience before they are allowed to practice independently.
You can also compare it to eye care: an optometrist goes to optometry school and can do eye exams and prescribe limited medications for specific diseases. An opthamologist goes to medical school + residency and can do what an optometrist can, prescribe any medication to treat any eye disease, and perform eye surgery.
| 34 |
[WH40K] Does everything feed the chaos gods?
|
The chaos gods cover the most of the emotional spectrum. Does the mere act of killing someone feed Khorne, or do i need to do it for him? Does someone being born and someone dying nautally feed nurgle, or a common cold? Does regular sex or a simple kill feed slaneesh?
The emperor wanted to starve the chaos gods by creating a sciency utopia. Would that mean that passive stuff dont feed them at all? or is is just that extreme excess and active devotion feed them so much more that the passive stuff dont matter? Was it that the Emperor just wanted them weaken so much he could take them out, or would he just starve them so much they would be come virutally powerless?
| 22 |
All war, all conflict, all rage and murder fuels Khorne - whether it is in his name or his enemies'. Of course, Khorne worshipers will fuel Khorne more because they **only** do war, conflict, rage and murder.
And anyway the Emperor wanted everyone to worship him because he's the one true god, surely?
| 13 |
[Pokemon] How are there still dense forests and tall grass everywhere when a good portion of the animals living in them can either breathe fire or have parts of their bodies literally made out of flames?
|
It seems like a even just a herd of wild Ponyta/Rapidash running through a field would cause a lot of wildfires.
| 107 |
Three reasons:
* Ever tried setting fire to a living plant? Unless you have a flame hot enough to rapidly evaporate the water, the most you'll do is smoke damage.
* They can control their powers. Heck in your example, Ponytas have a literal mane and tail made of fire yet can explicitly choose who or what they burn.
* Flora and fauna in the Pokemon world have evolved ad adapted to the unique circumstances of their world. Consider this, cows eat grass. Yet wherever there's cows, there's still lush green grass. Why? Because they don't eat to the point it doesn't grow back. Smiliar reasoning applies to Pokemon.
| 115 |
ELI5: How did our ancestors not get sick continuously from drinking stream or river water?
|
I am reading a history of the Oregon Trail emigrants and was wondering how they were not sick drinking from streams. They were not boiling their water based on my reading.
Edit - Awesome answers everyone- thank you
| 386 |
It's not the water that will kill you, it's the shit in the water. No seriously the shit in the water. Cholera was the leading cause of death on the Oregon Trail, dysentery was up there as well. The answer is, it did make them sick.
Edit: another thing to think about is that some naturally occurring waterborne parasites that can make you sick (giardia for instance) can take almost a month before symptoms manifest. They might not even have known what was causing the illness at that point.
| 279 |
[Star Wars] Force Suppression is a recognized phenomenon, if a third party could weaponise this on a Galactic scale what impact would it have on the status quo?
| 22 |
Of course, it depends on if it happens before or after the Clone Wars, but regardless, it would probably have less effect than you think.
Force users have never been very common. compared to the population the the galaxy, Jedi and other groups of force-users have always been a tiny minority.
There would probably be some disturbances initially, but the Jedis role in the Republic could easily be replaced with a dedicated, neutral peacekeeping force, and neutral diplomats. That was the biggest role of the Jedi in the later years of the republic, anyway.
| 13 |
|
What are some of the most major developments in philosophy of the last 20 years or so?
| 53 |
Here's some philosophy books that represent big developments:
* Knowledge and its limits by Williamson
* Every Thing Must Go by Ross and Ladyman
* On What Matters by Parfit
* What we owe to each other by Scanlon
| 24 |
|
CMV: The VI editor is largely inferior to any GUI tool and is not necessary for most people to learn
|
Just as with Linux itself, VI demands that you have memorized the functions and syntax whereas a GUI tool has menus and visual clues so you can figure it out with minimal poking. Even if you had short-term-memory-loss, you could function in a GUI whereas VI requires that you practice and earn a level of proficiency ala a black-belt in martial arts.
Specifically, **(and this is the core of my argument)**, VI may be good when you're an expert, but it's not worth becoming an expert in most cases and it's certainly not necessary unless you expect to regularly work on computers with no alternatives. That is; outside of system admins who are likely to work with non-gui machines regularly, VI isn't worth it. It's REAL advantage is that it's *there* which isn't really an advantage, it's a lack of options.
There's nothing significant that VI can do that something like Notepad++ can't and even then, most people's editing needs (for config files or anything where formatting isn't necessary) are for simple add/remove text, cut, copy, search, and replace which even Gedit and even the Windows Notepad tool do well. Even when I've been in a Linux administration role, I never needed anything outside of basic editing functionality which was easy to do in GUI editors.
So basically, unless you literally have no option or you are already a black-belt VI user, there is no point in learning or using VI at all. Outside of very specific circumstances, it is inferior.
Delta-worthy arguments would include explaining that there's a pattern or sense to VI that I've missed such that it's trivial to memorize or that there's some method of guiding people to the controls that's nearly as easy as having a menu (not MAN pages or a printed guide).
Also, maybe there's some killer function of VI that makes it worth it to people doing basic editing that I haven't considered. Arguments that start with "if you take the time to learn..." are unlikely to be considered unless you can show that the time spent really is worth it.
Any argument regarding "being too used to Windows" will not be considered as all GUI editors on all systems (non-Windows included) work basically the same way.
**EDIT: I left work and by the time I got home, took a shower, and made dinner, this has ballooned far beyond my capability to respond to. I see there are some detailed new answers and I will look through what I can, but I can't promise anything. So far, I've confirmed that the lowest bar of proficiency for VI is much higher than any GUI, VI users believe (and are probably correct) that with enough time and effort and proficiency, VI is very good (possibly better than anything else), and many people tried again to sell "it's everywhere" as an advantage which I categorically deny as being anything close to an advantage. Bottom line, it appears my original premise was not sufficiently challenged.**
_____
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| 355 |
You seem to have stacked the deck on this question.
Whether talking about computers or construction tools or booking a cruise, it doesn't behoove "most users" to learn the details to make you a power user. Sure, you'll be less efficient, but if you aren't using it day in and say out, the investment in learning something is probably more than the time it's going to save you.
So, yeah, it's not worth becoming an expert in VI unless it's worth becoming an expert, as is the case with everything.
What sort of argument are you thinking would change your view?
| 150 |
[DC] Why exactly is John Constantine so dangerous ?
|
Simply curious if he is dangerous because of luck meeting meticulous preparation or if he has innate magical talent like scarlet witch. Overall just curious to hear your thoughts.
| 28 |
Cunning. John Constantine isn't the DC universe's most potent mage but he's absolutely the one you least want to mess with. That's because he improvises on par with the Batman and has the morals of Amanda Waller. If Johnny-boy decides he wants to screw you over, you're going to get screwed over.
| 55 |
[Tolkien] If the Balrogs are warped Maiar, and Sauron is a Maiar, why did Sauron keep his form?
|
From what I understand, he kept his fair-looking form even after turning his allegiance to the Dark Lord. Why is this? Also, was he turned to Melkor's cause before or after the Balrogs? Was he always on Melkor's side?
| 66 |
Not all Maiar are equal, just as not all Valar are equal. The most powerful Maia is probably Eonwe, but Sauron is pretty high up on the list, even though he is just a servant of Aule and not Manwe.
Also one of his earliest and inherent abilities was shape shifting, which makes sense as he is a servant of Aule the Smith, no doubt that just as he can manipulate and change the materials of the earth, he can manipulate and change the appearance of himself.
Edit:
As for 'sides'. The Balrogs may just be native maia of Melkor. All Valar have maia who are affiliated with them. Being as Melkor is being of immense shadowy darkness made of ice and fire, it would make sense for his maia to be similar in nature.
Sauron was not originally on Melkor's side, he was a servant of Aule, but the power and majesty of Melkor is tempting and Sauron fell to this temptation. But he was not always evil and even repented for a time when Melkor was overthrown. But ultimately he was too far gone for any lasting change.
| 51 |
ELI5: How does a government like the Soviet Union just collapse? What does that actually look like?
|
I am having a hard time understanding how governments can just "collapse" like the Soviet Union, without any foreign threats. Wouldn't an incompetent and dysfunctional government just keep up appearances and continue to operate in the background?
| 42 |
The Soviet government was set up *somewhat* similarly to the US in that the country was organized into a bunch of semi-autonomous states under a national government.
The Soviet system differed from the US system in that the national Soviet government was much stronger than the US Federal government is. None of the "states" in the Soviet Union actually wanted to be a part of it - the only reason they stayed in is because the national government threatened to militarily intervene if they didn't carry out national policy.
The Soviet economy was centrally planned which meant that as it began to break down the states couldn't really do anything to fix the problems that were occurring.
Take Georgia, as an example. Georgia was heavily industrialized but had no national resources. Running its factories required it to import raw materials from the Central Asian Soviet states. When the Soviet economy began to collapse those imports stopped coming in. In a market economy that generally isn't a big deal, because you can just buy raw materials from somewhere else. But that wasn't possible in the Soviet system - the national government only allowed Georgian factories to use raw materials coming from Central Asia and it relied on the local Georgian state government to enforce that.
That's not a popular policy when there are literally no imports coming in from Central Asia and everyone is out of work as a result. This added pressure to the Georgian state government, which already didn't really want to be a part of the Soviet Union, to split off so that it would no longer be subject to the national government's economic planning scheme.
Starting in 1988 the situation began to get so bad that there were massive protests throughout the country and state level governments began ignoring national directives. Initially the national government used the military to suppress this, but it quickly became clear that wasn't working.
The national government then held local elections in 1990 as a way to try to pacify the states. Those elections resulted in pro-independence governments being elected in every single state and, rather than militarily intervene again, the national government elected to disband itself. The process of disbanding was somewhat straight forward because the pre-existing state governments were able to take over and function as national governments for all of the new countries that came into existence.
| 76 |
Why do electric motors have maximum torque at low rpms, while combustion engines have to be at high rpms to get maximum torque?
|
I know that combustion engines get their torque from piston firings, and at low rpms, there simply isn't enough firings to get any torque. Why are electric motors able to have torque at very low rpms?
| 23 |
Not all electric motors have maximum torque at low RPM's. Some AC induction motors don't, for example. But let's assume we are talking about a permanent magnet DC motor.
In a DC motor, when the armature rotates it causes a back-EMF (coils in the armature rotating in the magnetic field of the field magnets causes the back-EMF). Essentially this just means that a voltage is generated that is opposite in polarity to the supply voltage. This voltage is proportional to speed, so at high speeds the voltage is big and at low speeds, the voltage is small.
What this means is that when you are at your highest speed your voltage from your back-EMF is going to be almost as big as your supply voltage. Because the 2 voltages are opposite in sign this means the effective voltage across the coils in the motor's armature is going to be the difference between the two and that means it will be small. And because the effective voltage is small, this means that the current in the armature is going to be small (I = V/R). And because torque in a DC motor is directly proportional to current in the armature, the torque is also going to be small.
Now, as the speed decreases, the voltage due to the back-EMF is going to decrease and the effective voltage across the armature coil is going to increase. This means the current in the armature will increase and the torque will increase. Therefore, the lower the speed the higher the torque.
| 10 |
ELI5: How come it’s nearly impossible to get vitamine D overdose from the sun, but you can from supplements?
| 11,263 |
The sun is used to convert a vitamin D precursor to the next metabolite in the process. The body doesn’t store enough of the vitamin D precursor to cause an overdose. It also isn’t the final “activation” step for vitamin D.
| 6,084 |
|
ELI5: Why are food allergies so common in kids but not common in adults over 30?
| 124 |
No one really knows for sure. According to a study released in 2013 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food allergies among children increased approximately 50% between 1997 and 2011.
Also some allergies can be outgrown, like milk, eggs, and soy. Meaning there would be more children with these allergies than adults.
| 55 |
|
[Doctor Who] In adventures with multiple Doctors, why doesn't the Doctor's later incarnation remember the adventure's outcome, having already experienced it one or more times?
| 50 |
It is part of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
In almost all cases like this only the latest version of the Doctor (or any other Timelord) can recall the event at all.
The Third Doctor first commented on it and it has been fairly consistent since then.
| 47 |
|
[No Country For Old Men] What exactly happened at the drug deal? What was Anton's involvement?
| 20 |
(From the movie): The drug deal went bad. The details don't really matter - maybe there wasn't enough money, maybe there wasn't enough smack, maybe someone made a yo mama joke.
Anton was not involved with the deal, he was just known to one of the gang bosses as the guy to call when some product or cash went missing.
(Is it different in the book?)
| 15 |
|
[BNHA / MHA] If All-For-One were to take Toru (the insivible girl)'s quirk, would she become visible? We know Eraser Head can't erase quirks like that but All For One can take anything
| 18 |
Yes, she would. Her quirk is a mutation type and while Aizawa can't deal with them, it has been shown that that AfO can take those.
He once took a mutation from a guy and transferred to someone else. The mutant became normal, while the other guy started growing spikes or something like that.
| 32 |
|
I believe the SAT exam is NOT "culturally biased", CMV.
|
A significant achievement gap exists between racial groups on every major national standardized test. While trying to find an explanation for this, the SAT in particular, I kept running into the claim that the exam is "culturally biased", meaning the content or the wording of the questions is somehow skewed to be more easily understood by white schoolchildren. However, I couldn't find any **specific examples of culturally biased questions** in any recent exams, except for one that proponents of the culture bias theory parrot over and over about regattas.
Can you find specific examples of culturally biased questions on modern (last ten years) and national standardized tests and change my view that this phenomenon does not exist and is only cited to glibly ignore the deep societal problems at the root of the achievement gap?
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/national/SAT%20stat%203.jpg (Source: The College Board)
| 92 |
The trivial example is that the test is in English, and so the reading and writing sections test English proficiency, not reading and writing ability.
You probably acknowledge this. You should probably tweak your position so as to narrow it down to English as First Language speakers.
But from there, it's not like everyone in America speaks the same version of English conversationally. If you have never heard of a word on the SAT, you get the question wrong. You almost certainly believe that different cultural groups in America have different standard vocabulary, different ways to convey the same concepts in the same language.
That is to say, language and vocabulary is inherently cultural, it *can't* be unbiased.
| 89 |
ELI5: Pleading not guilty and then being found guilty.
|
If someone's pleads not guilty to a crime (trial-worthy) and then through the court proceedings they're found guilty (no plea deal), shouldn't they also then be convicted of obstruction of justice or Perjury, or some other serious offense....? Assuredly this can then be overturned if the ruling is repealed...
Let's assume this is a clear-cut, non-circumstantial case. e.g. They're caught on tape + DNA evidence + credible eye witness.
| 30 |
A guilty plea is not under oath and is not testimony. It's also not a factual claim; in the context of a trial, it's really a statement that you're going to require the government to meet its obligation to convict you. So it's not perjury, which is false testimony.
| 38 |
[Comic Books] Due to the frequency of resurrection in comic book universes, why not just patiently wait for the individual(s) to come back to life?
|
Coming back from the dead is commonplace in comic book universes, especially if you are a superhero/supervillain.
After several resurrections, why do other characters still urge those that grieve to 'move on', when waiting patiently will usually result in the deceased coming back?
| 22 |
It's commonplace from the perspective of the reader, scores of people die without returning because they weren't important to the narrative and even if it's happened before unless you have a power like medium awareness how could you ever be certain you're important enough to warrant it happening again?
I don't know about waiting "patiently" but I'd expect someone like Deadpool to behave in the way you're suggesting to the great annoyance of all the people around him who don't think they're in a comic book.
| 28 |
[Star Wars] The Jedi have dominated the galaxy for generations. What exactly did Qui-Gon think was going to happen to bring “balance” to the force?
|
How could bringing balance possibly be good for anyone other than the Sith?
| 745 |
Because the Sith are imbalance.
The whole ‘2 equally valid sides’ is old EU stuff, a misconception due to the lack of oversight.
George Lucas, back in Empire Strikes Back commentary, had the Force as Light Side or doing it wrong. The Dark Side was a sickness, something wrong, disruption. Balance was restoring peace and harmony.
Rather than the Yin/Yang version most people thought of, it was discord vs harmony. To be balanced is to remove discord, not to have as much discord as harmony.
Note that the Jedi are fully aware of this. Anakin was destined to bring balance but he failed and instead made everything worse. Which is what the rest of the council was worried about, prophecy wasn’t particularly well regarded due to it being unreliable in the extreme.
| 868 |
If you have two numbers which don't have a Highest Common Factor, is their multiple *always* their Lowest/Least Common Multiple?
|
Answers would be much appreciated
| 20 |
Yup. A formula that is generally used for these types of problems:
lcm(a,b) = |a\*b|/ gcd(a,b)
lcm is least common multiple and gdc is greatest common divisor.
As you stated, when gcd is 1, the formula will transform into:
lcm(a,b) = |a\*b|
| 16 |
Is stating the end of grand narratives a grand narrative in itself?
|
The same way that we think saying everything is relative is an absolutist position.... Can we say that we will never be able to exit grand narratives?
| 19 |
Lyotard’s abridged definition of post-modernism is an incredulity towards grand narratives. A grand narrative is comprehensive — it alone explains everything.
As such, post-modernism isn’t really a grand narrative. Being skeptical towards ideologies that claim to have all the answers doesn’t explain everything and doesn’t give you all the answers.
| 15 |
[DC/Lantern] What makes the Orange light so powerful?
|
Larfleeze is typically seen as the most powerful single lantern of any corps. Why is the orange light able to vastly overcharge and do so much? Is it because Larfleeze doesn't share the power or is there something special about avarice?
| 65 |
Both. The power of the orange lantern is focused and magnified by the greed of the wielder, just as the green light is focused by willpower.
Furthermore, the light of the emotional spectrum is generated by the collective consciousness of every living being in the DC universe, from the bestial animal instincts of anger and greed to the more 'civilised' emotions of hope and love. The emotions at the 'hot' end of the spectrum are thus FAR more intense than those at the 'cool' end of the spectrum, they are far more present in the universe and require less focused thought to cultivate, such as with willpower, hope and love.
Coupled with this vast resources at his disposal, Larfleeze's Orange energy is not diluted by having to share it with any other sentient beings - he has the full power of the Orange energy to wild - focused by his unmatched, dedicated greed.
The Orange energy of avarice is a fierce and powerful force, but as with all of the 'base' emotions, it can be overwhelming for the one who lets it consume them.
| 80 |
What is neoliberalism?
|
I have no background in economics or politics. Taking my first ever politics elective in university. So overwhelmed by terminology like this.
| 22 |
Neoliberalism confuses you because it is what you likely call "conservatism" (if you live in the US anyhow), although conservatism is something different altogether in politics.
Neoliberalism is, at its most basic, a strong belief in giving individuals the freedom to exercise their rationality, and make contracts with other individuals, in self-interested ways which benefit society.
For instance, two men decide to contract their collective efforts, and use their intelligence and sense for the market to band together and run a fruit stall. This benefits each of them, and indirectly society since we can now use our own rationality to purchase fruit from them.
If you're familiar with Milton Friedman, or Ayn Rand, or Alan Greenspan, they have assisted in popularizing neoliberalism.
Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and other politicians in the 1980s enacted neoliberal policies (in contrast to the social liberalism of FDR, etc.), which involved deregulating markets and in general reducing state functions (especially welfare, health care, etc.).
Essentially, the economic policies you might associate with the Republican Party and other "conservative" political parties - that is neoliberalism at its heart. However, don't make the mistake of associating neoliberalism with the social values of Republicans (anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, etc.) - those are the result of conservatism, and the resulting meld is called neoconservatism (but don't worry about that for now).
I'd highly recommend reading the 10 or so page introduction of Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" - he outlines the fundamentals of a neoliberal viewpoint.
| 14 |
Why does a Green Screen need to be green?
|
Why isn't it a red screen or maybe an orange screen?
| 22 |
It doesn't necessarily have to be green. The important thing is that it contrasts with the objects in the foreground. Since the foreground objects on screen tend to include people, and human skin tone lies in the reddish part of the spectrum, green is usually chosen since it lies opposite of red on the color wheel.
| 67 |
[Star Wars] What causes the different personalities of clones?
|
In the Clone Wars, some clones are shown to have different sort of personalities. One might be friendly and good with children, another might be cold and distant or overly aggressive. Why is this? Are they different aspects of Jango's original personality or are they engineered that way?
| 18 |
Personality is a product of many things. Yes genetics is one. However so are hormonal conditions in the womb. In the case of clones any slight changes in batch maturation chambers would have a similar effect. Lastly and not so trivially... environment. Clones will meet different people, posted to different locations... assigned different jobs. Maybe survived battle.. maybe never seen it. All these factors combine to make one clone a badass and another the funny guy
| 28 |
[Dragon Ball Z/Dragon Ball Super] What are the best/most broken wishes you can make with each set of Dragon Balls? (The Earth Dragon Balls, the Namekian Dragon Balls, and Super Dragon Balls.)
|
[Dragon Ball Z/Dragon Ball Super] What are the best/most broken wishes you can make with each set of Dragon Balls? (The Earth Dragon Balls, the Namekian Dragon Balls, and Super Dragon Balls.)
Please format your post like this if possible:
Earth - (the best wish you can make with these balls, and why)
Namekian - (the best wish you can make with these balls, and why)
Super - (the best wish you can make with these balls, and why)
| 76 |
Earth - panties. Oolong started the series with the best wish. Those things are probably the most comfortable clothing _ever._
Namekian - You can bring every single thing that's ever died back to life. The standard restrictions on resurrections (no natural deaths, can't be dead for more than a year, only one respawn) are removed. Go nuts.
Super - Wish to be the King of the King of All.
| 34 |
[Game of Thrones] how do Valerian swords withstand the white walkers?
| 16 |
AFAIK, the Valyrian swords were forged with Valyrian magic, which is magic based on blood and, more importantly, fire.
The Others and their zombie minions are practitioners of ice magic, which is diametrically opposed to the Valyrian fire magic. Thus the two cancel out.
| 28 |
|
Why don't children or get BO the same as adults until after puberty?
| 18 |
The human body has two types of sweat glands. The eccrine glands excrete sweat that's made mostly of water and salt. This sweat is part of the body's air conditioning system -- as it evaporates, it keeps the body cool. Babies need to stay cool, too, so the eccrine glands start doing their work long before you reach puberty.
It's sweat from your other sweat glands, the apocrine glands, that can cause a smell. Apocrine glands are located in the hair follicles. The sweat released from the apocrine glands contains fatty acids and proteins and is thicker than sweat from the eccrine glands. Sweat from apocrine glands isn't released to help us cool down, but rather it's secreted when we're under stress (emotional stress, physical stress and also physical and sexual excitement).
Bacteria are attracted to the fatty acids and proteins in sweat from the apocrine glands. As they process these substances, the bacteria emit byproducts that cause body odor.
While you're born with them, your apocrine glands don't turn on until you reach puberty. The age of onset for puberty differs between boys and girls, and according to race. For girls, puberty normally begins between ages nine and 13, while for boys it happens between ages 10 and 14.
| 20 |
|
Why does my 32GB Pen drive doesn't show 32Billion bytes?
|
I was just trying to understand between gigabyte & gibibyte and the way companies use the new gigabyte surprised me but the math doesn't seem right with the number of bytes because the pen drive should have 32,000,000,000bytes but rather it has 31,441,862,656bytes I'm not sure if the remaining bytes are used by drivers. Does anyone know why this happens?
https://preview.redd.it/65of6t3pwcc91.png?width=358&format=png&auto=webp&s=c47076afdb4bd3588609dcd3314a21d1776a3c49
| 16 |
In general, there are a few things at play.
First, there's base-10 vs base-2 (gigabyte vs gibibyte). Computers like base-2, and people like base-10. The math is close enough that we can say 2^(10) is about a thousand, 2^(20) is about a million, 2^(30) is about a billion, and 2^(40) is about a trillion. The metric prefixes kilo, mega, giga, tera get mostly used informally to refer to either one, so you can have mismatches there.
You also need to format a volume before it's useful. Formatting just means creating a new empty filesystem, and filesystems are also bytes stored on disk. There's structure involved -- tables to keep track of file locations and free blocks, etc. Creating those structures, even when there's no data to put in them, is writing bytes to the disk and using up some of that storage. So a formatted volume will always show less free space than the device it's on physically has, but you're usually buying something sold as the unformatted capacity. That's what you're seeing here. your device probably has 32,000,000,000 bytes of storage, but it takes quite a few of them to just write the FAT32 filesystem so that Windows can use it, and Windows shows you the usable space that's left.
| 32 |
Is the polar vortex a natural thing or is it also caused by climate change? If so, how does it occur?
| 66 |
The polar vortex is natural, it happens every year as the pole points away from the sun. The rotation of the earth and the Jetstream naturally feed circular winds around the pole, creating this yearly vortex over the North Pole.
..however it was destabilized and broken up into 3 smaller vorticies by unseasonably warm air masses migrating north and disturbing it. This is a pretty rare occurrence, but it seems to be becoming more common as temperatures rise.
One of the displaced remnants of the vortex was pulled South by a large low pressure system and boom, now we have this.
So.....
....both. the polar vortex is a natural thing to have over the poles. The fact that a piece of it has broken off and moved so far south is probably our fault.
| 117 |
|
Please point me in the direction of academic work arguing for and against "Gender Critical" Feminism.
|
I can only find articles and blog posts which do not have an academic tone and are typically fraught with condescension and insults. I fall squarely in the camp which would say that transmen and transwomen are "real" men/women, but I don't think that the concerns expressed by Radical Feminists and Gender Critical Feminists is as easy to dismiss as calling them TERFs. So, can you please provide me with some academic sources which both defend and criticize the gender critical position? Thanks!
| 31 |
Philosophy professor Rebecca Tuvel wrote a famous and controversial paper called "In Defence of Transracialism" that discussed the idea of "identifying" as a man/woman, and whether the same logic that supports it (if you agree with it) would also support other types of self-identification such as religion, gender, and species
| 21 |
I burned my finger on a hot pan on my stove. What is the liquid that is inside the blister? If I don't pop the blister, where does that liquid go?
| 183 |
It's filled with, get this, "blister fluid", which is mostly similar in chemical composition to serum/plasma. If the blister doesn't pop, the fluid just get reabsorbed.
Blister fluid is *probably* serum that's lost some of its verve through the heat of the burn. It contains very low amounts of immunoglobulins, and about half the complement you'd normally see in tissue where fluid has migrated. As complement at least shows a lot of heat lability, the biologically extreme temps within the burned tissue is thought to denature some of these proteins. It's assumed to get to the burned spot through normal diapedesis, which is the migration of non-red-blood-cell-blood components through the gaps between vascular cells.
| 102 |
|
Eli5: Seattle was home to the Grunge music scene, Nashville home to Country, Los Angeles to Surf Rock, etc. Why does there not seem to be a city now that has a big new music scene?
|
Tons of new emerging bands?
| 20 |
physical proximity matters a lot less about sharing music than it did it the 60s/70s/80s/90s. You used to have to live near a guy to hear him play. Now you really don't. If someone has a good sound people all over the world can listen and get in on it.
| 23 |
ELI5: Why does the area around train tracks always have rocks scattered around it?
| 27 |
The ground that is underneath is not straight enough to just put rails on, they would get bent over time, so we have to make some kind of a foundation for the rails that is both sturdy and cheap. And here we are.
| 22 |
|
[Harry Potter] Why aren't subjects like English, maths, Latin, etc. taught at Hogwarts? You'd think it's important to a proper education, even in the Wizarding world.
| 92 |
It's a great question and possibly why the wizarding world is so messed up. They're not grounded in the Classics.
History, logic, rhetoric, and ethics would be particularly important for people with so much power.
| 115 |
|
[Resident Evil 3] What were the umbrella teams doing near the beginning of the outbreak?
|
It shows several teams wearing umbrella patches being inserted by helicopters into the town. What was their mission?
| 20 |
The Umbrella Corp. was divided regarding the Racoon City infestation.
* Virologists within the city limits spent their time researching a cure.
* Weapons researchers had experimental Bio Organic Weapons (B.O.W.s) sent in, in order to gain data on their effectiveness at killing civilians.
* And the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS) was sent in to evacuate civilians.
| 10 |
CMV: I do not care about Stormy Daniels's involvement with Trump, and the media should stop covering it.
|
Usual disclaimer: Not a Trump supporter or defender at all. Can't stand him and would love for anyone to find any reason to get him out of office.
But I give zero fucks about Trump having an affair with a porn star some odd years ago before he was President or even thinking about running. It has zero effect on me.
Yeah he probably got with Stormy a number of times and has probably cheated on all of his wives with multiple women. And to be frank, I do not care. No one should care. How exactly does that affect his fitness to serve as a leader? Because it's immoral? There are "immoral" things I care about a LOT more than the president being an unfaithful horndog, like colluding with the Russian government or something.
It may be abhorrent and reprehensible, but I separate his professional life from his personal life. If I own a company and one of my employees cheats on his wife, I may personally be disgusted by it, but I would not fire anyone over it if they were doing their job and doing it well (not saying Trump is doing a good job).
Why do we give a shit about Trump's sex life? I was too young to have an opinion in 1998, but if the Lewinsky scandal happened today, I would say the same thing. I do not give a shit if Bill Clinton is banging multiple women and cheating on his wife, as long as it's consensual (and that's a whole other can of worms I won't open). But if I were an adult in the 1990s, I would say the same thing--I do not give a shit if Clinton is getting a beej from an intern. It's frankly none of my business.
And I think the media should lay off that stuff. It's a personal issue that is the business of Donald and Melania (and it was a personal issue that was the business of Bill and Hillary in the 90s).
Why is this a huge story? Because we want to show the world how scummy of a guy Trump is? Whoop-dee-frickin'-doo. We've known Trump is a sleazebag for years, why would this change a damn thing? We knew it very well during election season and people still elected him. I didn't, but not for that reason--he just sucks as a candidate and a president, I could give a shit less about him banging a pornstar years ago.
Does it bug me that people on the evangelical right are defending Trump? Sure, it makes them look like huge hypocrites. But I see that as a separate issue. Besides that, I am not bothered by the fact that Trump had an affair with Stormy some years ago, and it's stupid there is so much news coverage about it.
_____
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| 30 |
The issue here isn't so much that Trump had an affair and didn't want it to come out, but the method by which he tried to cover it up.
If he _did_ pay Ms. Daniels for her silence, the method by which he did so potentially violates federal campaign finance laws. He made a payment for an "in kind" contribution to his campaign, and the law requires that he disclose that. There are also questions about where the money for the payment came _from_, as depending on the source of the funding for that payment, there could be cause for it to be an illegal contribution (if it came from the Trump Organization or any individual other than Trump himself).
Campaign finance laws are really important things and we need to make sure that everyone is playing by the rules regardless of the situation. Like most things, the action is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme - it is the _cover up_ that matters and takes people down...
| 60 |
ELI5: Why RNA based viruses mutate faster than DNA based virus ?
|
Notice i have a vague "very vague" understanding of how a cell replicates using DNA ! i also have no idea what is the difference between RNA and DNA. I am sure it's a super complex thing to explain so Super thanks in advance !
| 33 |
Poor quality control.
DNA has mechanisms to prevent copying errors and/or destroy defective copies. RNA, particularly in a virus which isn't completely "alive" just doesn't have the complexity to support these mechanisms.
| 37 |
[Star Trek/Predator] Predators discover and start hunting Klingons. How does each species react to this new development?
|
Would Predators be happy at the discovery of Klingons (like would they consider them ultimate prey)? Would Klingons be happy about Predators? I mean they love war and fighting. Seems like both Predators and Klingons are very honor bound so they should get along and both enjoy killing each other, no?
| 22 |
There's an arrangement here where they just each send warriors every year or so to fight each other to the death in a super murder-y Olympics, and both species would have a blast with it. Probably they'd wind up fighting each other on and off in scattered battles for years until they realize that they both like it.
| 32 |
ELI5: Why are some words in English considered "rude" or "obscene" but their synonyms are not?
|
ie. Poop vs Shit or Crap
I know it varies by region/culture but that's about it.
| 727 |
One theory is that it boils down to prejudice against vulgar language.
Notice that the rude words are mostly of old English origin, words like shit, cunt and dick, whereas the polite terms are of French or Latin origin, such as faeces, vagina and penis.
England's elites used to speak French or Latin. They were deemed the "polite" society. The poor were deemed to be vulgar, hence "rude" or impolite.
| 1,024 |
ELI5:Why are there so many shootings in America?
| 16 |
It's hard to pin down a single reason, and it's also very difficult to be objective. It's easy to say that America has the most liberal gun laws of western industrialised nations and also the highest intentional homicide rate of western industrialised nations not currently in a state of war, but it might be slightly more complicated than that. For example, Germany has some of the world's strictest gun laws and does have a very low murder rate compared with the US, but the worst school shootings in recent decades have taken place in Germany.
It is very hard to escape the fact that liberal gun laws coupled with a general culture of violence plus inadequate treatment of psychiatric disorders are to blame, but to what extent each of these factors is to blame is not easy to determine.
If we pick on just the gun ownership aspect, the cases normally raised in these discussions are Switzerland and Australia.
Switzerland has a very high incidence of legal gun ownership, but the usual explanation that "all Swiss citizens are legally required to have guns" isn't quite accurate. In fact, most Swiss males in their twenties and thirties are conscripted into the militia, and are required to take their service weapons home with them -- but are not allowed to take any ammunition. (In the past, ammunition was issued in sealed boxes, and the seals were constantly checked and the bullets counted.) Still, most Swiss households have guns, and it is possible to get hold of ammunition. And it is true that despite that, Switzerland has a very low murder rate. Interestingly, though, while planned crimes -- armed robbery, for example -- are typically carried out using illegally held weapons, there is a higher-than-expected rate of domestic homicides -- crimes of passion -- and these are carried out using legally-held service weapons. So if you want to hold up a bank, you get a gun on the black market that can't be traced to you; if you catch your wife in bed with the insurance salesman, you grab the nearest weapon to hand which happens to be a gun.
Similarly, there is this thing going round that guns are now banned in Australia and that as a result the murder rate has shot up. Neither of those things are true: guns were restricted in 1996, but not banned, in Australia, and the murder rate appears to have gone down but was always very low anyway. Different researchers have come up with very different interpretations of the same figures, but it seems that gun crime was on the way down anyhow, and the 1996 legislation didn't make much difference. The only thing anyone can say for sure is that fewer suicides are committed using guns, which just means that people determined to kill themselves are turning to different methods.
TL;DR: It's much more complex than lots of people will have you believe, but it is almost certainly a mixture of many different factors.
| 62 |
|
Should I pursue a college degree or stop after high school and study programming by myself?
|
It's just a year left before I graduate in high school and I've been thinking about just not continuing to college for a CS degree and instead just study the essentials in it via my own. Would this decision really affect my chances for a job? If yes, then how much?
I'm planning to get a CS degree to get a job around Game Development.
| 24 |
Yes, it will affect your chances at getting jobs. Regardless of what people on this sub think, a college degree in cs is worth much more than a resume full of self-taught topics and personal projects alone especially when starting out.
It is true there are self tough coders who have great programming jobs now, but it's more true that with a college cs degree you'll have more opportunities starting out and fewer companies will just delete your resume finding no higher education.
| 56 |
Is it possible to fill a football with just enough helium to match the density of air, making it float in place?
|
It just came across my mind, throwing a football that does not come down. Would it be possible?
| 21 |
A regulation football has a weight of 410-450 gram and a circumference of 68-70 cm. Lets assume a ball of 410 gram (as light as possible) with a circumference of 70 cm (as large as possible). Furthermore, lets assume that the skin of the ball has negligible thickness.
That leaves us with a sphere with a circumference of 70 cm of helium that has to lift up 410 grams of mass. A circumference of 70 cm means a radius of 11.14 cm and therefore a volume of 5792 cm^(3) or 5.792 l.
The lifting capacity of helium-filled objects is based on the principle of buoyancy and is determined by the difference in mass between an amount of helium and the same volume of air. Note that footballs are pressurized, so they contain more air than normal outside air. A typical football will have about twice the mass of air per liter as its outside environment (meaning it's inflated to 1 atmosphere). The density of air is about 1.225 gr/l at standard atmospheric temperature and pressure. So double that for the inside of a football and you get 2.25 gr/l. Or about 13 gr of air inside a football.
You can take that all out and replace it with helium (0.18 gr / l), hydrogen (0.09 gr / l) or even a vacuum (somehow constructing a ball that doesn't implode) (0 gr / l). However, the most you'll gain is a buoyancy force capable of lifting 13 gr (when using vacuum), which is the amount of air displaced. This is very small compared to the 410 gr that the ball is allowed to weigh.
In fact, the difference in mass is smaller than the total mass range that such a ball is allowed to have according to the regulations. So while the ball will be a bit lighter, the difference will be small enough that it's likely that only advanced players will notice the difference.
| 56 |
Why can estrogen be delivered orally via a pill but testosterone cannot?
|
(I’m a transgender man, and it seems rather odd that trans women can just take a pill and I have to have a shot once a week.)
| 37 |
It can be, it’s just has extremely poor bioavailability in it’s raw form, so it would have to be alkylated which would make it liver toxic. Hence why most people advise against oral steroids - they have to pass through the liver twice before they reach the bloodstream, which causes cumulative liver damage over time.
Progesterone (the pill) And esteogen are entirely different hormones.
| 46 |
CMV: Relationships with large intelligence gaps are unlikely to be fulfilling
|
I know that there are many types of intelligence and that it's hard to objectively weigh one type against another. But, in terms of overall intelligence, or intelligence in certain areas, the person with more intellectual power is unlikely to be fulfilled when their partner can't help them grow in that way. Someone who isn't as well versed or naturally gifted in the same areas may frustrate their partner by not providing enough stimulation, leading their partner to resent them over time.
For example, someone who is extremely passionate about certain fields of science would not likely be happy trying to carry out a relationship with someone who has a difficult time learning those fields. Also, if you flip it, someone who is content with not knowing about certain fields may become frustrated and resent themselves for not being able to understand what their partner is trying to tell them.
It is currently my view that people should look for someone that has similar intelligence levels and have at least some of the same intelligence types in order to have a satisfying relationship. CMV?
Edit: One thing I find interesting about these responses is that there are plenty of people willing to admit how much smarter they think they are than their partners, but no one is saying how much smarter their partners are than them. I guess the jealousy aspect isn't as big as I thought it would be.
_____
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| 140 |
This is not necessarily true, as it depends on what both parties want out of their partner. A physicist may get plenty of mental stimulation at work and with his friends, and may not be looking for a partner to engage in scientific discussion with. He may want a partner who is primarily kind and nurturing, good at raising children, good at helping him relieve stress. This partner may want the same from him and may be willing to put up with, or even enjoy, his nerdiness. It comes down to a case by case scenario. Love is extremely complicated and it's hard to say that one single factor is either necessary or sufficient for compatibility.
| 67 |
When you feel "full" or "satisfied" after a meal, is this due to the quantity of food eaten or the energy/nutritional value the meal gave?
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For example can I eat a few energy bars and feel as satisfied as I would be with a larger meal with lower nutritional value?
| 5,802 |
Both!
When the stomach is physically full, stretch receptors in the wall are activated, sending signals along parasympathetic (rest and digest) nerves to suppress the hunger centres in the brain.
In addition, the composition of the food - its carbohydrate, protein and fat make up - will play an important role. Glucose levels are closely linked to hunger, as it is the main fuel used by most cells in the body. When glucose is high, insulin is released and glucose is driven into the cells; when it is low hormones like glucagon are released to drive glucose out of its stores in the liver.
A hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) is also released in response to amino acid and fat presence in the duodenum (first part of small intestine) and this delays the emptying of the stomach, resulting in you feeling fuller for longer. CCK also has effects on the central nervous system to reduce the feeling of hunger.
| 2,794 |
[Marvel] Could Mystique fool Jarvis and wear the Iron Man suit?
|
EDIT: Jarvis, the AI from MCU, not the human butler. Confusing with the whole licensing issue for the films. Tag should read [MCU/X-Men].
| 275 |
Can she pass the biometric locks? Probably.
Can she fool Jarvis for long? probably not. Tony is a physics and engineering genius. Mystique is not, few science and engineering problems and questions later she's exposed.
| 250 |
[Pokémon] How can the technology used in the Master Ball ensure that it catches a Pokémon EVERY time it's used? No human technology is that accurate. Is there magic involved? And also: how come they didn't just implement the Master Ball technology in all Pokéballs after it was invented?
| 78 |
The Master Ball is basically the Swiss Clock equivalent to a regular Pokéball. It's made with so much care and masterful craftsmanship that it works perfectly.
However this precision comes with the limitation that it's simply to complex to be made in large quantities and takes years of trial and error to be built. That's why we only ever find one pro region and why we often get it from the regional Pokéball craftsman themselves, they made this one as their magnum opus and only give it to us because we helped them and showed us to be worthy of it.
| 149 |
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Does dark matter and dark energy also exist on Earth or only in space?
|
Is there dark matter in our atmosphere surrounding us right now? If not, where is it found? As close as our orbit or way farther out in space?
| 19 |
Dark energy is associated with space itself, so it is literally everywhere, with the same amount being found at each point. However, within galaxies there is enough matter that gravity wins out over the expansion caused by dark energy, so while it's still there, we don't notice its effects.
Dark matter is instead composed of discrete particles, which have some density distribution that varies with position in the galaxy. So there is dark matter anywhere within the solar system, but the particles are just passing through on their own orbits around the galaxy. Because dark matter doesn't interact with normal matter, if any happen to actually "collide" with the Earth, they just pass straight through. Depending on what the mass of the dark matter particles is, there could be thousands or even millions passing through you each second.
The solar system is so small on galactic scales that the dark matter density is basically constant everywhere within it, so again, again, we don't see any local effects due to dark matter. There's one exception to this, which is that it might possible for dark matter particles to get "trapped" at the bottom of deep gravitational wells i.e. at the core of the Earth or Sun, or more realistically, around the black hole at the centre of the galaxy. If this happens often enough, its density could build up enough that we might be able to detect it, via a specific type of gamma ray signal. There's been various attempts to look for this, but none have had any success yet.
| 12 |
[GoT/ASoIaF] How come Samwell Tarly is still fat after over 2 years in the Night's Watch?
|
It seems like either the Night's Watch feed their brothers very well, our he has some hormone disorder.
| 87 |
He mentioned that he's lost a lot of weight during his time North of the Wall. Unfortunately, when you start out as the fattest boy Jon Snow's ever seen, even losing a lot of weight leaves you with a lot of leftover weight.
| 111 |
[Titanfall] Why don't they ever use Tanks?
| 43 |
Tanks do exist, but a Titan's sheer flexibility cannot be discounted in combat. Pilot engagements are quick and dirty affairs, where battlefield deployment must be as sleek and low drag as possible. A Titan can be dropped directly into action with little more than an ablative shield, while a tank requires a full scale vehicle dropship that is vulnerable to the fighters that inevitably find themselves over the battle.
A Titan brings with it the advantages of infantry while still having the durability and firepower of more conventional vehicles. They can dodge fire and directly support infantry units more effectively than a tank can. While a tank will have thicker armour and bigger guns, they can only be brought in during protracted engagements, and they can't just simply sidle into an alleyway for cover when under fire.
| 53 |
|
[40K] How is Terra still a habitable planet when there are hundreds of billions of humans living on it?
|
At that point, shouldn't the planet be suffering from overpopulation, complete drainage of resources, etc? If not, how does the Imperium work around this problem?
| 45 |
Holy Terra is completely and utterly supported by the rest of the Imperium. The oceans have long evaporated, its surface is covered in a single sprawling cathedral dedicated to the birthplace of Man and the God-Emperor. All food and material are imported from dedicated agri-worlds or from dedicated manufactorium/forge/hive worlds. It is a world of only religion and bureaucracy.
| 75 |
ELI5: Why Greece are upset at the IMF and why the IMF apparently hates Merkel.
|
I've seen a lot of pieces on the IMF and Greece over the last few days but I still don't understand what is going on. Seem to be a lot of small facts but don't seem to add up to an overall picture.
- EDIT - Are the recent Tax Evasion leaks linked to this at all? Either something to distract us from this or a part of the "event" to cause more financial meltdowns?
| 103 |
There are three sides to this: Greece, Germany, and the IMF.
To run their goverment and economy, Greece offers loans which pay an interest rate (just like most other countries). Despite Greece being a total mess of an economy (poor tax collection, too many services and pensions), German banks decided loans from Greece (as an EU member) were safe and bought them.
But now it's been found that Greece lied about their finances (to get into the EU) and it has so much debt, that they won't be able to pay back the loans or the interest to those German banks.
So those loans are worthless and German banks stand to lose alot of money. Germany wants Greece to pay their banks back even though there's no money.
In comes the IMF. The IMF believes that the debt Greece owes German banks has to be written off but Germany refuses to consider it. So every few months, the three agree to this charade:
The IMF agrees to bailout Greece every few months with a few conditions to let everyone save face. They give Greece money to keep operating. As a condition of that bailout, they demand Greece make changes to their economy (pension cutbacks, austerity, etc.). Greece does not writeoff their debt, but there's no payback date and the interest they owe is set to zero so German banks can still claim they are owed money even though noone believes they'll get the full value. So Greece gets money to operate while criticizing the Germans for not cutting them a break, Germany gets to scold the lazy Greeks while not telling the voters that they've lost a ton of money.
Now, as you can imagine, this would mean the IMF would bailout Greece forever.
So this recent Wikileaks article suggests that the IMF wanted to force Germany to accept a writeoff of Greece debt by causing a financial crisis by not bailing out Greece the next time. The Greek economy would grind to a halt without a bailout right around the time that Great Britain is voting on whether to stay in the EU or not (Brexit).
| 47 |
[Star Wars] Why didn't the Rebels deploy the Tantive IV at the battle of Scarif? An additional ship would have been useful.
|
Was it because the ship was known to be Princess Leia's and identification would jeopardize her political and diplomatic standing?
| 38 |
The CR90 corvette is one of the weakest in the rebel fleet, but it's one of the fastest. It was a contingency plan on the off chance something went horribly wrong. If anything was going to outrun the tractor beams and star destroyers it'd be that ship. When something horribly wrong did happen they rushed the plans to the Tantive IV and launched it, hoping that at least that escapes alive.
| 45 |
[DCU/Flash] Why was Wally West kid flash a lot slower then Bart Allen ?
|
For reference, SPOILERS !
https://youtu.be/FQUVmb8YEPk?t=45
| 24 |
He wasn't in normal continuity.
You have to remember that Wally West was a Silver Age character created in the same goofy time Barry was and created- literally- by the same goofy accident. Something modern audiences wouldn't buy but back then was perfectly reasonable.
Uninhibited by modern rational restraints, Wally was basically as fast as Barry and able to accomplish most of his same feats. However, as the comics entered the modern age, there was a concerted effort to distinguish the two and Wally was depowered some.
After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, roughly a wholesale reboot of the DCU, Wally donned the mantel of The Flash but was decidedly slower than Barry. It was later explained to be a psychological blockage he imposed on himself because he thought that surpassing Barry would be dishonoring his memory and letting Barry fade by replacing him. However, Wally reconciled his feelings and surpassed Barry in speed and became the mainline conduit for The Speed Force. While other speedsters could tap into it, Wally was always considered the "mainline"... some suggested this was because the Speed Force was speedster Heaven and Barry, being there, influenced it in Wally's favor over others.
Every subsequent Flash felt the need to "own" the Speed Force in some way. When Bart took up the mantel he "bottled" all of it into himself. When Johns brought Barry back, he wasn't content to interact with the Speed Force... he had to *be* the source of the Speed Force across all reality. That idea has since been removed in the New 52 and the Speed Force is back to being its own entity.
In regular continuity, Bart never had the psychological attachment to and corresponding hang ups related to Barry, thus he was arguably faster than Wally when Wally was slow... but Bart's also a modern character so he wasn't faster than when Wally was a kid in the Silver Age performing Silver Age speed feats.
---
In Young Justice continuity, we don't explicitly know why from the story, but Greg Weisman has extensively explained what their development bible, head canon, and future stories would have revealed to explain it... the short version is that Wally is so brilliant, he's able to recreate Barry's accident... but with only the equipment and chemicals a kid would have access to, rather than the high grade lab equipment in Barry's accident... thus Wally's accident is inferior to Barry's... Bart, however, gets his speed from the bloodline so no such issue.
| 22 |
[GTA 5] Questions about the prologue heist
|
Did Michael and the FIB preplan the heist to fail? Or was the heist legit with the FIB offering Michael the deal after he was wounded?
If it was the first one, why would they let Michael murder dozens of police officers,traumatize the civilians and cause massive property damage(blowing the safe, crashing the cars)?Couldn't they do it in a more efficient way like have Michael tell the crew to bunker inside while the FIB pump knockout gas inside?
If it is the second option, why would they offer Michael this deal?He's just after murdering dozens of innocent North Yankton police officers aswell as property damage and robbery. He should be getting the electric chair. Half of the robbery crew are dead, one captured and they know who Trevor is and can hunt him. What reason would they put Michael in protection instead of just arresting him?
| 18 |
Michael wasn't in witness protection at least not the fib's version. He was paying off Davey to keep him hidden that is mentioned in the set-up for the first heist. In Bury the Hatchet, we see that Michael met Davey before the depot job in North Yankton and they set that up together. Trevor was supposed to be killed (being the most dangerous) and Brad was supposed to go to jail with the FIB but because Michael fucked up and the security Guard was killed then the police were sent in. Due to that Davey relocated Michael to SA with all his money which is taken from witnesses in witsec in exchange for a pay off.
| 16 |
ELI5: Where did the age requirement of 21 come from as opposed to 20 (or any other number above 18) in order to legally drink?
|
What caused it to be set at precisely 21?
| 91 |
In Sweden you can drink alcohol when you're 18, but you need to be 20 to buy it over the counter.
The reasoning is that people who are 18 are still in high school and are therefore likely to have good contact with people as young as 16 who then would have easy access to alcohol. Where as if you're 20 you typically don't hang out with 16-17 year olds to the same extent.
| 50 |
[MCU] "Put on the suit." What was Captain America expecting to accomplish by challenging Tony to a boxing match? Seems pretty petty for a symbol of American virtue to want to fight his own teammate over a spat, and wouldn't Iron Man turn Cap to paste in a serious fight?
|
This happened in The Avengers.
| 75 |
Loki's scepter (aka the mind stone) was manipulating them into getting more aggressive, although there was a natural rivalry already because Tony is flippant and cocky while Steve is more about being reserved but standing up for yourself.
As for cap being pulverized, watch the end of Civil War.
Edit: oh and Cap knows it wouldn't be a fair fight against Tony without his armor. Even angry Cap is still fair Cap
| 163 |
ELI5: What exactly does "cash" mean?
|
For example when you win the lottery in all cash. Or on flipping house shows where they buy houses all cash. When i think cash i think of real physical cash.
| 19 |
>For example when you win the lottery in all cash
Lotteries generally have two ways you can accept your winnings.
1. An annuity for X years. Basically, the lottery commission invests the money, and pays you a yearly amount that, when added up over X years, equals the size of the jackpot.
2. Cash. You're not getting actual, physical notes and coins. You're getting a check that you can deposit at the bank. This amount is less than the total jackpot size, because they don't actually have the full amount of the jackpot, which is calculated based on what they can pay you over X years while investing the money.
>Or on flipping house shows where they buy houses all cash.
They write you a check.
In situations like these, "cash" means "you get all of the money right now in some form".
| 22 |
why does time, as a dimension, move "forward" while other dimensions don't have a particular direction?
|
So, I understand that changes in time have a negative sign in Minkowski space and that the proper metric for spacetime is dS^2 = -dt^2 + dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2. But, it also seems like that fact, and many of the consequences in special relativity, only have measurable effects when looking at things travelling close to the speed of light relative to one another.
Is this the reason time seems to "move forward"?
| 143 |
Well, let's take it as a given that an object *can* move forward in time. If we work in flat Minkowski space and pick an arbitrary stationary reference frame, an object that does this is traveling directly along the time axis.
Now, to get an object to move backwards along the time axis, you need to rotate it over to there, because in Minkowski space four-velocity shifts are represented by rotations. The problem is that Minkowski space is hyperbolic. So rotating from the time axis to a spatial axis isn't just a rotation through a circular angle of pi/2, it's rotation through a hyperbolic angle of *infinity*. To end up with your four-velocity pointing backwards in time, you have to rotate *more than infinity*.
| 67 |
[Warhammer 40k] What happens to old Imperial Guardsmen?
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I am an imperial guardsman from a small backwater planet, and have served the Emperor with honor these past 60 years. I was a Sergeant; lost my right leg to an Ork and my left hand to pirate scum. I thank the Emperor every night, for many I served with received fates far worse.
With the dusk of my life upon me and snow in my hair, can I ask what the the Emperor has planned for me next? I desire greatly to see my fair daughters, now in the middle of their life. More than this, will this old soldier will receive a stipend? Farming at my age would be a trial indeed.
Thank you, and may the Emperor smile upon you!
| 140 |
You've mentioned that your world isn't famous. You're not from Krieg or some other outrageously hardcore world where you fight till you die. And contrary to what you might think, you're not the only person who's become old in the Guard.
Guard regiments have several different policies for retirement. The most typical is that you serve for a fixed term: 15, 20, 30 years, that sort of thing. Obviously if your regiment can't be replaced quickly you may spend a few more years than you expected in battle, but overall you're going to get to retire if you somehow live to grow old. Even the Cadians have something like this, since new Cadians have to come from somebody. Yes, some battles go on for generations, but those aren't the sort of battles that people normally get to your stage in. Regiments are also often disbanded for fresh ones, and while the best of them are merged to other regiments, the soldiers that aren't needed any more get their own arrangements.
However, retirement isn't the same as being shipped back to your home planet. This is a backwater, you say, presumably not near any of the major destinations of the galaxy. There can't be too many regiments from a place like that, and it can hardly have that much demand for fresh soldiers. You might well be able to settle on a new planet, freshly conquered or re-settled, near where your last military campaign was.
From there, if you want to head home, you'll have to hitch a ride. Any pension will have been the land you were given to re-settle, so you'll probably want to sell that. Traders will ship you, for a price, to various places, and there's also room for an old member of the guard in various job positions: you made sergeant, so you might be able to do consultancy work for a local Planetary Defence Force, or join up with a Rogue Trader or a Mercenary Company. It might take a long time, but if you stick with it for long enough, eventually you can get home. So long as you're allowed to retire.
| 134 |
ELI5: why do periods last multiple days to a week? Why couldn't the uterus just dump it all out in a day?
| 34 |
It totally could just be one day; humans could also just not have periods at all. Tons of primates (and basically all non-primate mammals) menstruate internally, reabsorbing the majority of the uterine lining - that's why you've never seen a cat on its period. Like most questions about why a seemingly useless trait is maintained it comes down to a simple answer: because it didn't prevent the animals it happened to from reproducing in any significant way. That's probably because it doesn't start happening until sexual maturity (keeping in mind that non-human primates start mating and become pregnant comparitively early to humans), so any individual likely only has to survive a couple of periods before successfully passing on their genes. Also keep in mind death of both mother and child in childbirth was extremely common until recently, so if you were able to successfully give birth once then you were a relative genetic success. Given that it's only really a thing in monkeys and apes, it might also be that social behaviour covers for some of the issues menstruation causes (i.e. the rest of your group can help keep predators away while you menstruate)
tl;dr long periods of overt menstruation only minorly impact your chances of getting to sexual maturity and having kids. as a result there's no real evolutionary drive towards shorter periods, but there's no reason they're hypothetically not possible
| 47 |
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ELI5:Why do intense emotional responses leave us feeling distinctly un-hungry/ unable to eat?
| 142 |
IIRC from another post, intense emotion gives a sort of fight-or-flight reaction, putting your energy into vital organs, like heart, lungs, and brain. Digestion takes energy, so the body directs that energy into other more important functions.
| 82 |
|
ELI5:We can power an aircraft carrier for 25 years on nuclear reactors - why not spacecrafts?
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So we have these ships that can run for 25 years without refueling through the use of nuclear reactors.. Why can't we use these to power space ships?
| 25 |
We can and have done so.
There are a few problems. Nuclear reactors tend to be big, and produce lots of heat. At sea, you can use water. In space, you need radiators.
In addition, people tend to be upset when you tell them you're going to shoot nuclear reactors into space.
In general preference is for RTG's(Radiothermal generator. Basically a bit of radioactive material) as those are simpler and can be smaller.
| 27 |
[DC Comics / Green Lantern] Does it matter which hand a power ring goes on? Why do humans and other hand-having creatures wear them on their right?
| 33 |
It doesn't matter at all. A number of Lanterns have been species that don't even *have* hands, and some don't even have *limbs*. There's been a sapient smallpox virus as a Green Lantern, and even a Lantern that was a living math equation.
| 37 |
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ELI5: Why do almost all ready meals have to be cooked at 180°C? What's so special about that temperature?
| 32 |
It's because it will allow the Maillard reaction to happen. That's a reaction between sugar and protein, which creates a lot of flavor and brown color - it's what makes bread crust and grilled meat so tasty. If the oven is much colder than that, the surface will not reach a high enough temperature and the food will start drying out before becoming brown, whereas a much higher temperature will quickly burn the food.
| 23 |
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ELI5: Why do we still have car lighters instead of regular electricity plugs
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It seems like no one uses car lighters for there intended purpose anymore but we still use the same plug for charging. Why haven't we switched to plug outlets it seems the most logical thing to do.
| 391 |
Household electricity is AC, your car's electrical system is DC. It takes addition equipment to convert it to DC, and you lose some efficiency in the process.
Also, a car battery only produces about 500 watts, which is not enough for some high power uses. Your car's electrical wiring and fuses are not designed to deliver more power than that. So it is better to have low power DC devices that use one plug, and higher power AC devices that use a different plug.
| 176 |
ELI5: I often hear about new planets being discovered with water beneath the surface, but rarely about planets with large oceans. Is subterranean water easier to detect or more likely to occur, and why?
| 3,842 |
Water only exist in a liquid state at a narrow range if atmospheric conditions.
Many planets have surface temps far too hot due to proximity to s star or lack of protective atmosphere. On these planets beneath a protective layer of crust is the only place liquid water can exist.
Flip that logic and there are planets with icey surfaces due to extreme low surface temps and atmospheric pressure conditions. Those planets with an active core such as ours may allow liquid water deeper under the surface where the temperature is above freezing point.
| 1,926 |
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